Part of the “wave 1” rollout of the Administrative Information Management System (AIMS) will include transitioning the system used to manage the benefit plans to AIMS. As a result, new plan members will not be added to the system between June 13 and June 24, 2024. The impact on employees will be minimal, and Benefit Plans staff will work diligently to process requests received during the pause and return to standard processing times.

The pause will affect the ability of 3sHealth’s Employee Benefit Plans team to enroll new plan members, update the dependents of existing members, and complete other plan member changes. Canada Life will continue to process and pay health and dental claims for plan members who were enrolled in their plan before June 13, 2024. 3sHealth will also be able to process and pay approved disability income plan and group life insurance claims.

Eligibility measurement shifting

The transition to AIMS will also create an alignment in the frequency of benefit eligibility measurements. Previously done every week, this timing will be switched to every second week, aligning with the frequency of the bi-weekly payroll cycle. This is necessary because AIMS will now be generating the eligibility requirement hours that are used to determine if a plan member qualifies for coverage. 

Because newly eligible plan members will now be updated with Canada Life every second week, this may result in a week lag between when a member reaches their eligibility date and Canada Life receives the information needed to support health and dental claims. This may mean a slight delay in when new members are able to submit claims but does not impact the date of their enrollment or when coverage begins. There will be no impact on when other changes, such as adding or removing dependents or terminations from the plan, will be sent to Canada Life.

If you have questions about your benefit plan, call 3sHealth at 1.866.278.2301 or email ebp@3sHealth.ca.